Long before this short animated film started collecting awards, Jason Rayner (a CCA alumni who is studying animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design) recommend this groundbreaking little work by Moonbot Studios. In addition to over a dozen awards already, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" was recently announced as one of five Academy Award nominees for best animated short film this year. With only 15 minutes of playful animation and a childish instrumental score, it tells the story of a book-lover who is blown out of his chair by a storm that strips all the words from his beloved pages. He lands amid desolation but is conducted to a house of living books (by a friendly Humpty Dumpty who beckons from within a small volume of nursery rhymes).

At the same time as being a fun-loving and refreshing tribute to many childish and all-American things (such as Buster Keaton and The Wizard of Oz), this short film is also an artistic masterpiece that bears fruit in the light of contemplation and repeated viewings. Children and adults will find many good things that are loved well as they wander through the carefully constructed little world that "Morris Lessmore" presents.

When was the last time that a storm ripped away some part of your world and landed you in a place of fresh starts? When did you last smile at a nursery rhyme? When did you last fall deep into a book that had gone unread for a generation or more? When did you last stop to dream about the chain of lovers who came before you and who will come after you?

This is a fifteen minute film that recalls Noah’s flood (in the writings of Moses), the fall of the Roman Empire (in human history as well as the volumes of Edward Gibbon) and Beatrice (in Dante's epic). Or perhaps it should call to mind Christ's rebuke: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Regardless of what I drag up in my effort to talk about this film, I will only be exposed as a pompous windbag in the end.

This tiny cinematic treasure was not crafted to inspire long-winded dissertations (about either desolation or beauty, as pictured below) but to delight child-like hearts. Here's hoping that you've already had the pleasure or that you will very soon.

[Note: Moonbot Studios also created a best-selling, interactive "Morris Lessmore" iPad app available on iTunes in the App Store.]